August 24, 2013

Hello From Africa,
Wow, time really has flown by. Can you believe I put in my mission papers 2 years ago? I actually only figured that out once you said that school starts on Monday. I'm sure that will be nice to get everyone back out of the house a little bit. Things will be a bit calmer, and fewer children whining with boredom.

I did get your email about school. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do. I kind of bob back and forth on that. I think for the most part though I would like to dive right back in.

 

So, I have a bit of a problem. My camera has gone on the fritz. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. It isn't doing anything to the memory card, but I missed some golden photos this week. I know a couple of places where I can buy a decent and trustworthy camera, but I'll not buy it without your go-ahead. 

 

We have a baptism in about 3 weeks. Kevin is a good guy. He's been to church for a solid month now. He used to be a Jehovah's Witness so he still has some interesting ideas floating around in his head, but he has a good testimony of the restoration and is humble in gospel learning. Brice is another investigator who is progressing really well. He still has some issues that he needs to work out, but he wants to be baptized. The Holy Ghost has been working on him over the years, and lately has been working over time. We talked about the Word of Wisdom two weeks ago, and that day he quit cold-turkey. Unfortunately, not all issues resolve that quickly. One of the principles of free agency is that there are consequences. When we apply the Atonement, that doesn't mean that the consequences just disappear. It does mean that we have the Savior's help in resolving the consequences. It's a key difference that sometimes investigators struggle to grasp. 

 

I was reading in Alma 44 this week and I found something interesting. in vs 5 Captain Moroni tells Zerahemnah that God has strengthened the Nephites. What I found interesting is the list Moroni gives of how God has strengthened them. It's not just faith in God, but it's also the church, their ordinances, family responsibilities, liberty, and so forth. Lots of little building pieces make one big whole. 

 

In terms of fires, I don't ever hear of things like brush fires or things like that. Generally it is pretty humid. The other thing is that we are in the city, so we don't much that could spread like that. That being said, we see a lot of fire. Because there isn't really any organized system of garbage disposal, getting a bunch of trash together and burning it is fairly common. It's probably one of my least favorite smells here. 

 

I did hear from Jacob. He didn't say much more than that he's upstate now. I'm glad he got to do that during the non-pageant season. I think it would have been too distracting otherwise. It'll be a nice change of pace for him. As for me, I'm still here in the office. I passed my six-month mark this last week. Elder Mary and I went and bought some ice cream to celebrate. Did you know that they make ice cream with raisins in it? I'm not sure if that's normal, or just African. 

 

Looks like I'm out of time for this week,

Love you all,

Elder Christensen

PS, happy late anniversary mom and dad!